EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

EAGLE – Exploring Links between Intergenerational, Distance and e-Learning

European Approaches to Intergenerational Lifelong Learning (Session C3 Socio-Economic and Inclusion Aspects of e-Learning) Thomas Fischer & Walter F. Kugemann FIM-NewLearning Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg Germany

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

EAGLE Observatory

• • • Insight into the potential and the limitations of intergenerational learning; Insight the policies, concepts, frameworks in place and empirical evidence available; Insight into the models of of good and less successful practices.

 Multidimensional analysis of ‘what works with whom under which circumstances’  In order to formulate policy and practice recommendations

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

EAGLE Activities

• • • • • To pilot and validate a set of intergenerational ‘learning sets’ and a ‘practical toolkit’ for practitioners; To support the exchange of ideas and experiences of learning between the generations; To create professional dialogue between researchers, developers, practitioners, age group representatives, policy consultants and policy makers; To encourage innovative and alternative learning pathways of Lifelong Learning; To support the intergenerational contract in private and professional lives of European citizens.

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

(Initial) EAGLE Partnership

• Lambrakis Foundation (LF), Contractor, Athens, Greece • FIM-NewLearning (FIM), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen Nürnberg, Coordinator, Erlangen, Germany • SCIENTER • TKK Dipoli (SCI), Bologna, Italy (TKK), Espoo, Finland • The Beth Johnson Foundation (BJF), Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom • European Distance and e-Learning Network United Kingdom (EDEN), Milton Keynes, • Romanian Institute for Adult Education • National School of Public Health (IREA), Timisoara, Romania (NSPH), Athens, Greece • German Children and Youth Foundation • MENON Network EEIG (DKJS), Berlin, Germany (MENON), Brussels, Belgium

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

Why Intergenerational Learning?

• • • • • • • • Demographic change, ageing society and workforce Changing economic, insurance and welfare patterns Increasing economic disparities, ‘2/3 societies’ Shift from full- to part-time employment Shift from a industrial to a Knowledge Society Individualised/atomised societies, flexible lifestyles and changing biographies, from individuals to ‘multividuals’ Dissolving traditional family structures, single households, social isolation of the elderly etc.

Economic need for mobility and flexibility, ‘modern nomads’

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

What is Intergenerational Learning?

“Intergenerational means ‘being or occurring between two generations’ and intergenerational learning refers to the sharing of information, thoughts, feelings and experiences [in a Lifelong Learning context] between two generations that […] enrich both.” (adapted from ThinkQuest, ORACLE Education Foundation, 2007)

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

EAGLE & Intergenerational Learning?

“Intergenerational practice aims to bring people together in purposeful, mutually beneficial activities, which promote greater understanding and respect between generations and may contribute to building more cohesive communities.

Intergenerational learning is a process, through which individuals acquire skills and knowledge, but also attitudes and values, from daily experience, from all available resources and from all influences in their own ‘life worlds’.” (EAGLE Consortium & Centre for Intergenerational Practice,Beth Johnson Foundation, 2007)

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

Benefits of Intergenerational Learning

• • • • • • Uniting segregated generations and building better understanding between generations; Encouraging active citizenship and social particpation; Encouraging cross-generational working; Sharing societal and professional resources, tacit and explicit knowledge among generations; Challenging social problems cross-generationally; Supporting Lifelong and Lifewide Learning.

 Maintaining & building human and social capital simultaneously

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

Pitfalls of Intergenerational Learning

• • • The trap of ‘Homogeneous Groups’ The trap of ‘Life Worlds’ The trap of different ‘Identities’ • • The trap of different ‘Pedagogies’ The trap of different ‘Values’ • The trap of different ‘Perceptions & Cognitive Processing’ (adapted from Röll, F. J., 2004)

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

Intergenerational Learning Activities I

• • Learning from each other (e.g. skills and capacity development, digital literacy, employment, oral and local history, reminiscence, preserving cultural heritage); Helping and supporting each other (e.g. childcare support for single parents, mentoring and mediation for pupils and youngsters, support for migrants, interaction between day care centres for children and retirement homes, civic participation);

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

Intergenerational Learning Activities II

• • • Living together (e.g. multi-generational living, neighborhood/community living); Experiencing together, opening up collaborative spaces (e.g. pedagogical initiatives in museums, community centres and work); Playing, acting and performing together (e.g. arts, theatre, music, festivals, workshops).

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

EAGLE Map of Intergenerational Learning

Lifelong Perspective Lifewide Perspective

Figure 1: Intergenerational Learning as an integral part of Lifelong & Lifewide Learning (after Boström, A.-K., 2003)

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

Intergenerational e-Learning

• • • • International : Tandems and e-Twinning of younger and older professionals e.g. in the automobile industry (e.g. BMW), banking sector (e.g. citibank) etc; Greece : Education of adults in the acquisition of basic skills in new technologies (IRAS); Germany : web services of the ‘Contemporary Witnesses Exchange Association’; United Kingdom : ‘Intergenerational Computer Project’ for older persons in rural or living in isolation.

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

Join the EAGLE Community @ www.eagle-project.eu

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

Thank you very much for your attention …

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy

… not yet, because someone said quite a while ago:

“Der Jugend wird oft der Vorwurf gemacht, sie glaube, dass die Welt mit ihr erst anfange. Aber das Alter glaubt noch öfter, dass mit ihm die Welt aufhöre.“ Young people are often blamed for believing that the world begins with youth itself. But the elderly believe more often that the world ends with old age.

Christian Friedrich Hebel (1813 – 1863)

EDEN Annual Conference, 14 June 2007, Naples, Italy Sonia Hetzner [email protected]

Thomas Fischer [email protected]

Walter F. Kugemann [email protected]

FIM-NewLearning www.fim.uni-erlangen.de